Inside the Castles of the British Royal Family

The customary spot for the British royal family's Christmas holiday, Sandringham House is a sprawling redbrick country residence near King's Lynn, Norfolk. It was purchased in 1862 by Queen Victoria, in part to keep her playboy son, the Prince of Wales (Edward VII), far from the temptations of London. Back then it was an 18th-century, white stucco house with Gothic Revival additions. The Prince and his Danish wife, Alexandra, aided by architects A. J. Humbert and Robert W. Edis, transformed it into an Elizabethan-inspired mansion with 365 rooms. The estate now clocks in at more than 20,000 acres and is managed by the Queen's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Designed in the 1820s by architect John Nash, the Gothic Saloon occupies the heart of the Royal Lodge, a Gothic Revival house that was for many years a country retreat for Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. (The saloon was originally a dining room.) Located in Windsor Great Park, about a mile from Windsor Castle, it is now the official home of the Duke of York. Built by George IV, largely demolished and rebuilt in the 1830s by William IV, and enlarged in the 1930s by the future George VI, the lodge now includes 30 rooms. Sir James Gunn painted a well-known conversation piece in the Gothic Saloon in 1950, depicting the family of George VI having tea in front of the fireplace.

Remodeled by architect James Wyatt in the 1790s for Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, Frogmore House is located in Windsor Great Park. Charlotte desired for herself and her several unmarried daughters "a Sweet retirement in the Summer all Dressed out with Flowers," and Wyatt delivered a white stucco-clad house in neoclassical style. Though a museum today, the building has been home to several royals, including Queen Victoria's mother and George V and Queen Mary. The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, one of the many grandchildren of Queen Victoria, last Viceroy of India, and father-in-law of British decorator David Hicks, was born here. The gardens include the family mausoleum, burial place of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria.

Reflecting the taste of Queen Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent (née Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield), the drawing room features an adaptation of a mid-19th-century flowered fabric used at Frogmore in the 1860s. The wallpaper, a copy of the original installed by the duchess shortly before her death in 1861, is framed with lavender panels—purple was reportedly her favorite color.

Fringed with wisteria, Frogmore's thatched-roof summer house was erected in 1869, and was reportedly designed by S. S. Teulon, an architect best known for Gothic Revival churches and chapels. Shortly before Queen Victoria's death, the building was described in the magazine The Lady's Realm as "a verandah-surrounded bungalow, built of what, in old English vernacular, used to be called wattle and dab,' and roofed with fancy red tiles." It remains a part of the royal family's life: When Queen Elizabeth II is at Windsor, she and her family take tea in the whimsical structure, made of two octagonal structures connected by an airy loggia.

Known as the Black Museum, this room at Frogmore is decorated with Regency and Victorian papier-mâché furniture acquired by Queen Mary, much of it encrusted with mother of pearl and enriched with gilt. The yellow, red, and black decor replicates a 1939 photograph of the room.

Another outbuilding on the grounds of Frogmore is the Canadian Hut, a timber pavilion constructed during World War I. It is made of wood brought to the site by Canadian soldiers stationed at Windsor Great Park.

In the 1930s the people of Wales presented Princess Elizabeth of York (now Queen Elizabeth II) with a playhouse—complete with electricity and a gas stove and full plumbing—for her sixth birthday. Built by Welsh craftsmen and christened with a resounding Welsh name—Y Bwthyn Bach ("The Little House"), which is emblazoned over its front door—the miniature cottage was set up in the gardens of the Royal Lodge.

This bedroom, like all the rooms in the Royal Playhouse, is outfitted with oak furniture copied from the collections of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. Alongside the bed is a matching one for a doll.

Over the sitting room fireplace—visible from the entrance hall of the Little House—is a portrait of the Duchess of York, later known as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

The flowered fabric in the sitting room of the Little House brings its garden indoors.

In the playhouse kitchen, blue-and-white fabric gingham reigns, with white-painted furniture made by Welsh craftsmen. The room's original aluminum cookware was donated to the war effort during World War II.

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